All posts tagged Woodland

..is usually caused by a trouble maker, likely to be something like the Jay. This typical British woodland bird can be a bit of a thug when it comes to dealings with it’s fellow residents. The commotion and squawking accompanied by shaken falling leaves is not easy to miss, in the furore of fluttering feathers you may catch the indisputable sight of the Jay. It tries to raid their nests and they are not at all happy about it! Easy to recognise with its buff underparts and azure blue marking of its upper wings, its headgear is equally brazen with white and black marking.

It’s one of the our crow family and although not usually known for being shy with other birds they are with humans, they don’t like to hang around long in one place and will be off once they spot you, making its distinctive raucous call as it goes. Bully they may be, but beautiful as well, now thats a combination!

I enjoyed making this bird with my usual papier mache body and individually torn paper feathers. I like to get a more varied colour palette out and loved doing the striking black and white markings on it’s head, and the unusual eyes. I added a bit of extra interest with the bits of tree bits. The hand finished rustic frames I use seem to complement the theme.

This picture measures 9 1/2″ x 9 1/2″ so is one of my larger pieces and makes quite an eye catching bird artwork.

Dave has luckily managed to get a few pictures of this bird over the years, and here is one for you to enjoy.

Anyone who’s a member of the RSPB may have recently received through the post their quarterly copy of “Natures Home” magazine. Along with free admission to all of the UK’s RSPB reserves the magazine is a perk of being a member of said organisation. Back to this in a moment…

Now, as one who likes to get out and about as much as possible I’ve noticed that on the nature front things are cooling down. Birds are no longer singing to hold a territory or attract a mate and the frantic to and froing (is that a word?) feeding the young ones has mostly finished as they’ve fledged to make their first flights into a new wide world. It’s usually around this time that I start to wonder what to look out for and where my next half decent photo opportunity is going to come from?

This brings me back to the RSPB magazine I mentioned at the start of this post. Inside, there’s a section called “Your View”, which contains a selection of photos sent in by the magazines readers. In this new edition the winning image is of a rabbit taken by a chap called Paul Dimitriou – nothing special about a rabbit you may think? Well, this image (in my humble opinion) shows how with good composition and lighting and also in this case excellent timing can yield a prize winning photo, I wish I could link to the article so you could see it. The image is in portrait orientation of a young rabbit standing on its hind legs, sniffing at a stray grass seed head, presumably about to eat it, that’s about all that’s in the picture other than grass and out of focus nettles. It’s a very worthy winner in my book, if anyone’s reading this and have seen it I’d love to know your thoughts?

So the next time you or indeed I see a common rabbit or something similarly overlooked, don’t let the possible opportunity pass by. Paul Dimitriou will be glad he took his opportunity, the prize of £850.00 pounds worth of high spec Leica V-Lux f2.8 compact camera will soon end up in his hands.

The picture at the top of the page is one of my better rabbit images, there’s nothing much happening but I like the fact that there’s 4 of them looking relaxed and all facing the camera (sort of)…